3.5. South Asia: Online Media Campaign on Climate Change: Notes towards an intervention

In 2008 Panos South Asia proposed an information project that intended to use ICTs to share, aggregate, provide, communicate and manage knowledge on climate change adaptation. The project was the culmination of several years of covering climate change issues by Panos South Asia. Key milestones in our coverage are listed below:

• November 1999: Tough Terrain (a media report on sustainable mountain development issues); two reports on climate change in the Himalayas were included, Feeling the Heat (on global warming) and Into Thin Air (on glacier melting).

• May 2004: Environment for All. Some of the reports included in this project touched upon the issues of climate change and its impact (such as coastal erosion).

• October 2004: Disputes Over the Ganga. Some of the reports in this project sought to look at Ganges water basin management issues in Bangladesh, India and Nepal from climate change perspectives (e.g., the issue of floods).

• June 2006: On the Brink, dealing with energy in South Asia. The reports in this project looked at the issue of finding new sources of energy and climate change in South Asian countries.

Online Media Campaign on Climate Change

The goal of the project, which is called the “Online Media Campaign on Climate Change”, is to facilitate access to information and knowledge on climate change in order to enhance the role of the media in advocating for prevention, mitigation and adaptation strategies and approaches.

The project also seeks to build the capacity of media practitioners and other stakeholders in South Asia to practice online media campaigning on climate change.

In order to do this, the project plans to create a knowledge and communication platform to stimulate discussions between the various climate change actors (NGOs, donors, governments, multilateral organisations, etc.) and the media. It also aims to organise training interventions to build the capacity of South Asian media practitioners on the application of ICTs for online campaigning on climate change.

As we see it, the key issues are:

• The proper identification of climate change issues relevant to each country in the region

• Defining the media’s role in combating climate change

• Defining how online media can be used for campaigning

• Building an effective partnership between the media and civil society, as well as government organisations and other stakeholders

• Identifying and supporting leaders and champions in the media and elsewhere.

We are still in the process of trying to raise funds for this project. However, the imperatives behind the project remain. Though climate change has been a burning issue and a significant amount of effort has been put into raising awareness at various levels, there is still a daunting need to raise the general public’s awareness on climate change, to engage the media and stimulate dialogue.

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